Archive for April 2012

Confirming the rumors about simplified SKU's , Microsoft has announced that its latest o/s Windows 8 will come in three flavours: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT(Run Time). While the first two will be available at retail, the Run Time version will come pre-installed in ARM-based devices.

While all the three have the same core features, average users will find a tough time telling them apart."Windows 8" is intended as the base offering and pretty much seems analogous to the previous "Home" editions. It although has virtually all the upgrades like the updated Task manager and Windows Explorer, better multi-monitor support, Sky drive integration, improved power efficiency and more.

On the other hand "Windows 8 Pro" has some extra perks meant for the tech savvy guys and professionals, such as access to BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, Client Hyper-V, Group Policy controls, as well as the ability to host via Remote Desktop and boot from VHD. However the PRO version requires you to upgrade either through Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate.

Last but not the least the "Windows RT" version also known as Windows On ARM (WOA), won't be available to retail OS and since its mostly geared towards the Tablets, Microsoft has made some mobile oriented tweaks. Most notably, the touch-optimized desktop versions of Office applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. It also gains device encryption, but loses Windows Media Player.

Outside this, there will also be an Enterprise Edition, that contains all the features of Windows 8 Pro with added features for IT organization that "enables PC management and deployment, advanced security, virtualization, new mobility scenarios, and much more." Pricing hasn't been shared yet, but we'd be surprised to see a significant deviation from previous rates. The full feature chart is below:

BitLocker and BitLocker To Go

x

Boot from VHD

x

Client Hyper-V

x

Domain Join

x

Encrypting File System

x

Group Policy

x

Remote Desktop (host)

After Much Of the mounting rumors, Google finally launched its Google Drive an official cloud based storage option. In February, a Google employee had hinted that the company would be releasing a Cloud based storage services in a "couple of weeks", which turned out to be an peevish estimate.

Diving into it Drive the first thing which we notice is that the interface is similar to that of Dropbox.You can download the Google Drive from here. Upon Installing, we can choose which all folders to synchronize and eureka, instant cloud storage. To send your files to Google Drive, simply copy the files into the designated folder. The default folder is "Google Drive" under your user directory, typically "C:Users/username/" for Windows Vista and Seven for Windows XP it will be "C:Documents and Settings/username/".

As rumored the sub domain drive.google.com appears to be home base for the service. Also as rumored storage upto 5GB would be free, beyond this Google Drive offers tiers all the way upto 16TB of storage space.The pricing structure is as follows :

25GB - $2.49/mo

100GB - $4.99/mo

200GB - $9.99/mo

400GB - $19.99/mo

1TB - $49.99/mo

2TB - $99.99/mo

4TB - $199.99/mo

8TB - $399.99/mo

16TB - $799.99/mo

The overwhelming feature of Google Drive is its integration with Google Docs. When a user enables Google Drive, their default Docs interface will be integrated to accommodate Google Drive.By default, Google Docs has traditionally shown a home screen which displays all of your most recently opened documents. Perhaps at the risk of confusing some Docs users, this screen has been replaced with a "My Drive" page -- a page which only shows labels and documents located at the "root" of your Google Docs.. err... Google Drive. As a result, labels now work much more like folders.

It is unclear what the future holds for third-party tools like Insync, however, they seem be functioning fine since Google Drive's release.

The service is currently compatible with Windows, Mac, Android and iOS is expected to come in a "couple of weeks".

27th April Marked the release date of latest UBUNTU,12.04.Codenamed as Precise Pangolin,its an another LTS version of ubuntu.It brings Unity and its file searching tool HUD to enterprise users as a part of the long-term support.Canonical will offer security updates till 2017.

Diving into the the new os the screen which we see immediately after installation is a clear indicator that"There's a significant set of aesthetic changes for users, and ultimately beauty is a feature," says Steve George, head of communications at Canonical, told ZDNet. "Users enjoy their environments more when they look beautiful and modern." That said, it's also true that Unity continues to seriously divide loyal followers and this latest release is unlikely to be any different despite some major improvements.

It's an important change as well, since this being the first long-term release (LTS) to feature both the Unity interface now at version 5.10 as well as the heads-up display (HUD), the new context-sensitive searching tool which enables users to control programs by typing commands, as opposed to the more traditional method using a menu.

This release marks the first time Ubuntu has offered a uniform five year policy for all LTS releases.And those wanting a more leeching experience can opt to upgrade to the next release in October, codenamed Quantal Quetzal.

Users can now customize the icon size in the left-hand bar int the Appearance settings. The Workspace and Bin icons now exhibit a new 'Chamelonic Behaviour' which tints themselves to the background color, similar to the aero effect. Also making debut entry is the new video lense for the dash, which enables searching video content online with likes from YouTube as well as local video files also.

Other than the conclusive visual changes, the kernel has been upgraded to version 3.2 which offers better performance stability as well as the new Metal-as-a-Service(MaaS), a provisioning tool which according to Canonical "brings the cloud experience to traditional hardware", this automates the installation of scale-out software like OpenStack onto physical nodes.

If you guys haven't upgraded to Lion OS cos you still haven't forked out money, then cheer up Apple has good news for you!!Yes Apple is now giving away Snow Leopard to potential icloud Coustomers.

In an article sent to MobileMe coustomers Apple has recommended that potential coustomers sholud get in touch with apple to receive a free dvd of snow leopard so that they can upgrade to lion and move to i cloud.

Now All you have to do in this case is follow this link, log in to MobileMe with your MobileMe account,and fill out your mailing informations.Upon Completing you will recieve your Snow Leopard DVD for free.

This was presumably intiated to encourage users to upgrade to icloud before MobileMe is shut down on June 30